Glenn Beck's '9-12' logo based on communist and socialist designs

Ever since Glenn Beck took to the Fox television airwaves recently to offer a bizarre reading of the art commissioned 70 years ago for New York's Rockefeller Center, I've been puzzled by the graphic design element of his 9-12 Project. The logo (pictured) for his affiliated groups' rally in Washington, D.C., this weekend derives from century-old communist, socialist and other left-wing designs.

Those were the motifs he railed against in his Rockefeller rant.

For the logo, three raised and clenched red fists are superimposed over the U.S. Capitol. Obviously the bloody fist represents the tea-baggers' themes of unity and resistance.

But do Beck; the corporate-sponsored astro-turf group, FreedomWorks, headed by former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas); the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights; the private-property group, the National Assn. of Rural Landowners; and the rest of the march sponsors know the symbol's origins?

Unity and resistance are what the fist represented in 1917, when it was first employed by the Industrial Workers of the World, a union organization founded by socialists. And in the 1940s, when it stood  for various nations' communist party organizations.

That's also what it meant when it was revived in the 1960s, appearing as a symbol for the SDS, as well as anti-war and feminist movements. It was the basis for the black-power salute given by John Carlos and Tommie Smith at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. And today, it's the symbol for the Progressive Labor Party (pictured), a political outfit whose website says it "fights to smash capitalism."

Turnout for the 9-12 Project's Saturday march on Washington was a bust; 30,000 protesters signed up in advance (MSNBC reporter David Shuster tweeted that D.C. park police called that figure "generous"). But even if three times that many actually showed up, the number would fall far short of the hundreds of thousands (and even millions) claimed to be planning to attend. Even in that reduced crowd, however, surely someone recognized how odd the right-wing gathering's left-wing logo was.

Maybe Beck will explain. Sort of.

-- Christopher Knight

Credits: 912dc.org; Progressive Labor Party

Comments

[John]

The mainstream "Media" is really in charge of Obama! That is why the 1st person Obama appt. on National TV was R. Emanuel. He then had to announce his and The USA's undying support for Isreal. Obama is a puppet.
But even the laziest Americans are waking up and getting mad. He won't last his 4 years. impeachment will happen or we will just suffer till the end of 4 years and then try to clean up the massive mess he will leave us in!
I thought he was gonna end the War before December? Our troops home yet??? Oh no he put more in Afganistan. HA!
He hes not lived up to 1 campaign promise. What a loser!
Hope we can last till we can change his change into $ again!
The new Obama girl is a fat chick on welfare!

[Sea Urchin]

Such a sorry excuse for "reporting" does not merit comment, except that Knight seems to take the lead from his exalted one: lie, lie, and keep lying, the premise being that if you repeat it enough it will become truth. The kool-ade drinkers just cannot seem to grasp that this is not about race but about preserving our constitutional rights, which do not include having our lives run by the government.

[Didn'tdrinkthekoolaid]

"They had 36 million people show up on a single day to protest President Bush's decision to start a preemptive war across the world,""

I didn't know we could reinvent history! 36 MILLION? I think not. Perhaps you want to go back and check your numbers Simkatu. Question, are you from Barry's village in Kenya?? Just asking.

[blakmira]

Glenn Beck is an entertaining clown at best and an enemy to real patriots at worst. He has proven over and over that he is no friend to supporters of Ron Paul, smearing them to dangerous domestic terrorists, fringe lunatics and supporters of neo-Nazi holocaust museum murders.

After all, he does work for Fox...

I believe his 9-12 name infers that he just wants everyone to quit asking questions about 9-11 and just "move on to the next step." According to him, you are either a nut or anti-American if you just want 100s of unanswered questions resolved, as now do the majority of Americans...

[George]

oh thats right, the last 8 years never happened, where our rights were abused and even taken away by the bush regime, our country bankrupted by backwards thinking and ineptitude, hundreds of thousands killed for no reason in an illegal attack and subsequent occupation of Iraq. I keep forgetting that those 8 years were a mulligan......

[a different Rob]

You right-wing sheep are getting more and more ridiculous and absurd every day.

Suddenly you think protesting is the coolest thing because you are scared of SOME IDEAS about restructuring insurance. BUT when lefties were protesting against a STUPID multi-trillion dollar war where thousands of lives were wasted for corporate greed and lies, you said protesting was UNPATRIOTIC. Questioning the president, you said was wrong.

Bush ACTUALLY DID big, bad terrible things that were extremely costly in lives and money. Biggest deficit EVER, many things in shambles. But you think he's great WHY?? Because he's "christian"?? because he pretends to be against spending?? because he's republican?? What the beck is it??

Why are you so scared of this administration and/or president? Truly nothing of the sort of "taking over our country" or "stifling free thought" or "death panels" None of that has even a freakin' grain of truth to it.

So what is it? Glen Beck said "Obama has exposed himself over and over and over again as a guy with a deep seated hatred for white people."
Are you actually believing that crap? Or any of the crap out of his partisan hack, uneducated, uniformed mouth?

You'd probably do better to listen to Rush, where almost 3% of what he says is true.

[Millie]

The liberal news media just does not get it, do you? With Queen Pelosi labeling the people at the town hall meetings as Nazis, you attempting to place the communist label on Beck, you liberals have gone nuts. This is the facts which you won't print or state on the news: Millions of Americans just do not trust the liberal Democratic Congress, the news media to tell the trust, and believes that Obama lies quite often. Yes, OBAMA LIES. Someone told the truth during the speech in Congress last week. Too bad for America that the press & news media does not tell the truth, along with Obama. You are destroying your business and our country.

An independent who votes both parties wrote this one. My believe is that we should get rid of everyone in Congress and try to restore our country to the values it has had for over 200 years, minus the last few years.

[Tom Paine]

What garbage. Glenn Beck is hugely popular because he opposes a massive expansion of federal government powers. If he were a communist, he would favor greater power for DC bureaucrats. But it is Barack Obama, not Glenn Beck, who calls for centralization of power in DC.

[NATAS (father of Barack)]

Jerry,

Barack the usurper is not the first black president

Barry's Mother is white
Barry's Grandmother who raised him is white

I declare that Barry the usurper is white. His blackness was not used until he wanted to use it for advantage.

He is also not an African American but an African Britain and will be deported when the truth is revealed.

[Laochtine]

Glenn sure does cry a lot for a man

[Veteran]

"I may be totally wrong, but I'm a dancin' fool... the beat goes on and I'm so wrong..." Frank Zappa said it best regarding your left leaning propagandist methods. Only you could make such an illogical leap. Please clean the wax out of your ears and listen for once - Glenn Beck is merely voicing what we all see and feel when it comes to having our Constitution perverted by "Progressiveness". Some day you may awaken to find out the truth - liberal policies don't work. Stop criticizing things you don't know about.

[Socialist Watch]

"Turnout for the 9-12 Project's Saturday march on Washington was a bust" Were you there? Oh.. tv on the blink? Did you see the amount of people that were there....i think when the media is this dishonest the people stop going to said media. How are the sales of your paper going? I guess some sheep still buy the paper. So you are so blinded by the party that you can't see it's not right against left...it's them taking what's ours ...stop the party bickering...and see bush started taking our liberty with the patriot act and maubama wants everything run by the govt. I love the fact that you can't deny the fact that he wants to control everything , so it's always name calling when you don't agree with his agenda . My fav is racist because he is the first half black president...it's getting so the name doesn't bother anyone anymore...so good luck as the amount of your readers plummit like obama's (and the rest of our government right and left) approval ratings. Oh and howard stern has the same type of logo...love that guy.

[Dan]

Right on the money! I couldn't have said it better myself Chris. Great article. I can't believe how many people listen to Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. If it were up to me I think they should go home and keep their opinions to them selves.

People like Van Jones and groups like Acorn are exactly what this nation needs! We need more of them!!! I personally am glad that Acorn has their place in this administration. Community organizations are the best most practical way to push an agenda and if the Republicans are not smart enough to use them to help win elections then it's their loss.

Cass Sunsteins book Nudge is so right on the money. Why try to push this nation one way or another when you can slowly nudge it in the direction your agenda see's fit. Those right wing nuts are too dumb to know what is good for them. We need people in congress to pass laws just to keep them from kidding themselves. I personally can't wait for the day when I don't have to worry about paying my mortgage. Don't have to worry about bills and if there is going to be food on the table. I know for a fact Obama will take care of those things for me.

People in this country aren't smart enough to know what's right for them. I put my trust in Obama. At least he'll take care of me!

[Didn'tdrinkthekoolaid]

Barry better watch out, Orly Taitz is coming for him! Barry better hope the DOJ squeezes the judge (again) to get them to drop this pesky lawsuit. Not sure why someone would SEAL all of their records, unless they had something to hide. Barry, the long legged mack-daddy usuper, must go. I hope he takes Pelousy and Reid with him. Biden can stay, he's just stupid.

[Aaron Truitt]

What an important observation - the logo design. But if you're going to make an honest critique you might notice that it's consistent with populist type artwork. It's taken a long time for decent, hard-working people to finally make a stand against encroaching tyranny.

The small-minded bigoted comments below sound like the things said about the Liberal agitators of the 60's. Maybe the shoe is now on the other foot.

As a non-Liberal, I am now a dissenter.

[George Ledre]

Hah! Mr. Knight's use of the derogatory term "tea baggers" shows where he's coming from. This is straw-grasping in the extreme. Knight can't even understand that Beck is mocking the left even as he dismantles their propaganda.

[kyle]

Glen Beck is an entertainer. His audience are people who feel picked on by the "system" . They, like Beck, don't care about logic, or reason, just emotion. They march on Washington complaining about deficits. Where were they when Bush gave away 1.7 trillion to the rich? When he involved us in a useless war that cost another 1 trillion. Now that we are talking about taking care of those who can't get coverage like my nephew who was born with a "pre existing condition" we just can't afford it.

So asking Beck to see the absurdity of his poster, or his audience is just a bit much. Just laugh and hope that most see the absurdity of retired white people on medicare railing against "socialist medicare." The contradictions are too deep to go into.

[Simkatu]

Glenn Beck flunked out of college. Rush Limbaugh flunked out of college. Sean Hannity flunked out of college. The problem is that they can't stand that such things such as facts, evidence, knowledge, and truth exist and those things consistently counter their preconceived "beliefs" and "feelings". Of course there are always scared mindless sheep willing to follow someone that loudly professes the same irrational beliefs and notions.

These protesters claiming to hate Barack Obama for not being fiscally conservative, never bothered to show up when Bush increase the federal debt by $4 Trillion, nor when Reagan tripled the national debt with his irrational and irresponsible spending. They aren't scared of spending, they are partisan hacks, racists, or both. No other explanation accounts for the cognitive dissonance in calling Obama to task for irresponsible spending when every single Republican since WWII has outspent every single Democrat.

[Bill]

Gee, what an insightful commentary this was...not! Lots of different organizations, political movements, athletes, liberals, conservatives, socialists, etc have used this.

[wilder5121]

It's SEPTEMBER 13th. Know what THAT means?

That means that - as of yesterday - President Obama has now officially kept us safer from terrorist attack during his first year in office than Bush and the Republicans did.

See what having an intelligent President can do for you?